"Civilization is not self-supporting. It is artificial. If you are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization -- you are done." (Ortega y Gasset)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

A conspiracy of silence

Eamonn MacDonagh reminds us that justice has yet to be done, fifteen years after a truck bomb destroyed the headquarters of the AMIA Jewish community organization in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were killed and hundreds injured:

2. Carlos Menem’s government saw to it that the initial investigation was carried out with the intention of protecting the authors of the attack rather than apprehending them. Judicial investigations of the cover-up have been going on since 2000 but no one has been brought to trial. The chief whistleblower in the original investigation continues to be the victim of threats and intimidation.

3. A group of corrupt police officers and a dealer in stolen cars was eventually tried on charges of having played a secondary role in the attack. They were all acquitted. A subsequent Supreme Court decision upheld the acquittals but deemed the basic narrative of how the attack occurred to have been proven. It also ordered further inquiries into the role of the car dealer in the attack but nothing has been done about this.

4. Argentina has been ruled by Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for more than 6 years now. During this period there has been an improvement in the quality of the lip service paid by the authorities to the need to find those responsible for the attack. International capture orders have been issued for a number of Iranians suspected of involvement in it. The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has thumbed its nose at them. No one in power appears to be unduly bothered by this and Argentina continues to have diplomatic relations with Iran.

5. It’s very unlikely that anyone involved in the planning and execution of the AMIA massacre is ever going to be convicted and sentenced for their part in it.